By Arunav Goel
for
NeemTree Agro Solution
Agricultural output remains largely unaffected by coronavirus outbreak, to grow at 3%
India to register record production of food-grains at almost 300 million tonnes
A nationwide lock down in India has had a significant impact on the agricultural industry in India. The major issue being the unavailability of migrant laborers, especially since it is a period of harvesting the Rabi crops. The lock down has also disrupted the transportation to the villages, upsetting the supply-chains. The poultry farmers have been hit hard due to misinformation.
The central and the state governments are working together to compensate for the
losses and grievances of the farmers by introducing numerous measures like crop
insurances and unemployment allowances under MNREGA.
Simply put, over 80 per cent of CEOs in India think normalcy is not going to return before six months. This is the beginning of May. So, before the end of October, the Indian economy of industry and services sectors (agriculture fields don’t have CEOs) is to reel under the impact of coronavirus.
The Indian economy is left with agriculture, only agriculture to depend upon. And, the good news is India is expecting record food-grain production at almost 300 million tonnes — 298.32 million tonnes to be precise (149.92 MT kharif + 148.4 MT rabi).
The question is, What does the future hold for the agricultural sector of India?
The need of the hour is to provide education and awareness to the farmers and their children, which would enable them to use better machines, fertilizers, seeds, irrigation
methods, storage facilities etc which would in turn help increase their production output
and eventually their income.
The government can provide agro-training to farmers, capital facilities to the poor farmers and set up more Grameen banks so that the farmers don’t fall into the cycle of
indebtedness of the moneylenders. The transportation facilities should be improved
further to cater to the market needs. It needs to propagate the benefits of digitisation
and modernization to everyone more vigorously. Direct Benefit Transfer and reforming APMC acts is one the key role where private players will start to enter the market.
With more production and more workforces, agriculture requires proper management by the government. If 100 per cent procurement happens, it will revive private consumption demand, which was originally responsible for the economic slowdown in India in pre-corona time.
This brings us back to the opening sentence that India is still an agricultural country. The coronavirus outbreak has reinforced this often ignored reality of 130-plus nation.
Neem Tree 
Impressive depth of the article
LikeLike